One of the wonders and rewards for being open to life is that we chance, through our authenticity, to experience the essence of all those who ever lived. When we love completely, we chance to feel everyone who ever loved. When we listen completely, we chance to feel the presence of everyone who ever listened. I was up early, before sunrise, when I fell into one of these moments and wrote this poem.

In Your Company

Up early, my breath still

visible in the coffee, the stars

still conversing in their glitter

before our noise makes them

retreat. I feel the groove of my

awe. There is a comfort in this.

Up early, alone, standing on the

same shore as those before me;

staring at the same pins of light,

feeling the same ounce of wonder,

the way a small wave lapping at the

bottom of a cliff briefly feels every

small wave that has lapped

there before.

A Question to Walk With: Discuss with a friend a moment in which you felt both your own particular life and the sense of other lives before you and around you.